TheDailyMeal: America’s 10 Most Popular Fast Food Items

7) KFC

This one was another no-brainer. We were told that the Original Recipe Fried Chicken is their current best-seller, as it has been since the Colonel himself introduced it to the world. Coming in at a surprising second place? Boneless wings.

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During the 2012 fiscal year, SONIC’s top five selling menu items were: 5. Coneys and hot dogs come in at number five, with just more than 100 million sold. 4. Real Ice Cream treats like last year’s Red Velvet Cheesecake Blast. Customers ordered more than 137 million Real Ice Cream menu items including sundaes, blasts and shakes. 3. Tots. A meal at SONIC would also not be complete without a side of tots and customers enjoyed more than 151 million orders of tots last year. 2. Specialty Drinks follow closely at number two. More than 192 million specialty drinks including Cherry Limeades, Ocean Water and all slush flavors. 1. Made-to-order burgers, selling over 200 million.

Even though the Thickburger (especially in its ‘Monster’ incarnation) is one of the most fattening fast food sandwiches out there, a rep confirmed for us that the big burger is in fact its highest seller. It’s what we think of when we think of Hardee’s, right?(Besides Paris Hilton, of course.)

While the Arby’s representative we spoke with wasn’t able to provide us with facts and figures, it took her no time at all to tell us that the chain’s highest-seller since it launched in 1964 has been their classic Roast Beef sandwich, with the Beef ‘n Cheddar clocking in at a close second.

This one was another no-brainer. We were told that the Original Recipe Fried Chicken is their current best-seller, as it has been since the Colonel himself introduced it to the world. Coming in at a surprising second place? Boneless wings.

“Ranking at the top of the favorites list are the Italian B.M.T®, Tuna, and the Subway Club®. Fresh Toasted favorites include Meatball Marinara, the Chicken and Bacon Ranch, and our Subway Melt® subs.” The site also mentions that the fast food giant “serves nearly 2,800 sandwiches and salads every minute.”

While Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco—which swapped out the traditional corn tortilla crust with a giant Dorito (a spark of brilliance, if we do say so ourselves)—might have been hugely successful, it’s not the chain’s current best seller. Even though it quickly became the Taco Bell's most successful product launch ever, the Communications Department crunched a few numbers for us and determined that in fact the tried-and-true Crunchy Beef Taco remains its current best-seller, with over 2 billion sold in the past year alone.

It took a bit of digging for the representative we spoke with, but it didn’t take them too long to confirm that in fact the chain’s highest-selling item is most likely what you ordered from them the last time you had some buddies over: the large pepperoni pizza.

While we couldn’t reach anyone from Wendy’s for comment, and they don’t publish these statistics, most information available seems to corroborate our sneaking suspicion that their highest-selling products are either the trademark Frosty or the Crispy Chicken Sandwich.

There’s a reason why Burger King touts itself as ‘The Home of The Whopper:’ it’s their highest-selling item, worldwide. SVP of Global Product Marketing John Shaufelberger confirmed it as such during a recent interview with QSR Magazine. He added that one of the main reasons why it’s so popular is that customers could “have it their way,” confirming both of their mottoes to be truthful maxims.

The highest-selling fast food product on the market today? It’s not the Big Mac, it’s not the McNuggets. According to an Annual Report from McDonald’s, it’s the item that complements just about every product ordered at the fast food behemoth: the french fries. McDonald’s goes through a whopping (BigMac-ing?) 9 million pounds of the magical fried potato every day. Do the math, and that equals out to the highest selling fast food item on current menus, and probably of all time.